Journal of Student Research 2014

Journal of Student Research

Table 2.1 : Proposed realignment of teams [13]. NCHC stands for the newly created National Collegiate Hockey Conference.

University

2012 Conference 2013 Conference

Bowling Green State University

CCHA CCHA CCHA CCHA CCHA CCHA CCHA CCHA CCHA WCHA WCHA WCHA WCHA WCHA WCHA WCHA WCHA WCHA WCHA WCHA

WCHA WCHA WCHA NCHC Big Ten Big Ten WCHA Big Ten NCHC WCHA NCHC NCHC WCHA Big Ten NCHC

Ferris State University

Lake Superior State University

Miami University

University of Michigan Michigan State University Northern Michigan University

Ohio State University

Western Michigan University

Bemidji State University Colorado College University of Denver

Michigan Technological University

University of Minnesota

University of Minnesota–Duluth Minnesota State University University of Nebraska–Omaha University of North Dakota Saint Cloud State University

WCHA NCHC NCHC NCHC Big Ten Big Ten

University of Wisconsin

Pennsylvania State University

N.A.

Minimizing Travel Distance In this section we select the alignment that minimizes travel distance between teams. Road distances between universities have been determined using Google Maps. Definition 3.1. The distance matrix is defined to be the 21 by 21 matrix D where D[ i, j ] is the distance between the hometown of team i and the hometown of team j .

Before using these data we should define precisely what is meant by an alignment.

Definition 3.2. An alignment is a vector x , of length 21, whose entries take a finite set of values that indicate conference membership.

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